February 27, 2012

Spell - Wind Bubble MU/Elf3

There is a small brown journal full of cramped personal notes and sketches in mixed elven and magical text. It's a first person account of researching a new magical spell and the expenditures to that end.

It details the purchase of many strange objects and ingredients, along with the successes and failures of their use. Soon it discusses the care and training of a chicken to be used as a test subject. The spell is designed to push back noxious vapors and allow the subject to breathe normally, so it's not the sort of thing that you alpha test on yourself.

The chicken turned out to be viciously uncooperative and eventually came to be named Loudy McShudup. She was a headstrong chicken who caused constant delays. The author seems to have spent a rather long time detailing the costs associated with each chickenastrophe, such as broken equipment, ruined ingredients, and hiring local youths to apprehend her after she ate a rare gemstone and escaped. The author estimates that before her suspiciously undocumented death, Loudy caused half of the total 6,000 gp in research costs.

The final two written pages are a scroll of the mostly finished spell as written by the author, easy to transcribe into a spellbook.

Wind Bubble
MU/Elf3
Range: Untested. It was typically cast on the chicken at close range.
Duration: Pretty long, but it fluctuates. Expect half an hour, hope for a full day.

A strong, focused wind continuously spirals around the subject. When possible, this wind forms into a sort of hollow 10' sphere that travels with the subject. A thin curtain of strong winds blow out from the feet, whip around and spiral up the body, ending in a jet of air shooting straight up from a point above the head. The wind is noisy and easy to hear, but impossible to see unless a lot of dust or sand is flying about. Halflings and heavy physical objects can pass through easily, but all gasses and vapors are expelled.

Once inside the effect of the spell it is blustery as the cool air moves out toward the edge, but this is only a steady breeze. The subject has a constant supply of breathable air pouring out all around themselves. The outside edge is a gale force sheet of wind that runs along any floors and walls it can't push aside. Walking is made more interesting by the fast wind running along the ground. Like any strong wind, the edge of the bubble seems to repel normal fire and will put out torches and small flames that get too close. Droplets and small puddles are pushed back by the wind as the subject walks toward them. Entering a large pool of water will eventually cause the wind sphere to collapse into a constant eruption of bubbles. Being surrounded by bubbles on all sides makes it impossible for the subject to swim as they gently sink to the bottom. The ensuing underwater tower of bubbles might even capsize a canoe or rowboat if one end dipped too far into "boiling" waters. I think it might be possible for the subject to use a wet sack or something to collect and use the bubbles to breathe underwater, but Loudy totally freaked out at that point so it remains untested.

With this spell I should be able to search through some deadly gas-filled rooms. It wasn't designed to protect vs. dragon breath, fireball, or arrows... but an elf can hope. In theory at least, I'll be protected from poisonous vapors, noxious fumes, toxic spills, acidic rains, paralyzing dusts, vampiric mists, and all manner of unfortunately fatal floaty phantom foes. ~V